Respond in kind

Dec 17, 2001, 01.27am IST

prime minister vajpayee should wake up after the barbarous attack on parliament. such acts cannot be handled with a velvet glove and a fitting reply should be both sophisticated and ruthless. we should emulate the way israel is handling terrorists: mr arafat today is unable to leave his place without israel's permission. even if that seems too extreme, we should not hesitate to attack all terrorist camps inside, or outside the country. pakistan is using pok to train the terrorists, and once they are taught a lesson they will not think of going on. but opposition leaders have just been extracting mileage out of this situation by blaming the goverment of a security lapse. that is a matter of shame. do they forget that what we are facing today is no more than the fallout of dirty politics and bad policies of the past 50 years? these very same opposition leaders are also the ones who have been fighting against the anti-terrorist poto legislation! now it is mr vajpayee's turn to prove his worth through action. just empty words will no longer suffice. the pm must show the terrorists that he has accepted their challenge. only then will we be able to believe in the statement that mr l k advani has made to the media about liquidating "terrorists and sponsors wherever they are, whoever they are". (rajan s pillai, by e-mail)